Many years ago I compared several brands of 12AT7 type tubes. To my surprise, by far the best sounding was a Chinese made variant sold to me by Billington in the UK. Since Billington is now out of business, I don’t know where I would get more of them, if I needed them, but fortunately I do not need them. My point is, don’t sell Chinese made tubes short if SQ is the major criterion. (The Chinese 12AT7s didn’t last long in use. Second best in my experiment w 12AT7s were GE 5-star gold pins.)
Telefunken vacuum tube E88CC-TK; NOS versus brand new.
Telefunken vacuum tube E88CC-TK; I just purchased a pair of these and they are fantastic; they raised my phono to a new level.
Now here's the question, I paid $60 apiece for a pair of these brand new. "Uncle Kevin" at Upscale Audio, sells these for $349. apiece. His are NOS, they should cost more, they also probably last longer, but do they sound better? That is the question. It is not in my budget to pay $700. to find out. Do you have any comments on this?
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I recently rolled in a number of different NOS tubes to compare to the stock EH's that came in my amp and the stock Sovtek's that came in my preamp. The tubes include NOS Amperex PQ's, NOS Silvania Gold Brand, NOS Telefunken Smooth and Ribbed plates, NOS RCA Clear tops and the now unobtanium NOS 1963 GE long plates. While there are considerable differences between these tubes as to SQ, all of them sound to my ears superior in one way or another over the EH's, or the Sovtek's. YMMV. |
I’m glad there are still companies out there, making tubes for our gear, wherever they may be located. With enough variety to satisfy most tastes, in sound/presentation. Even some that competed with the clarity/purity and quality of NOS Teles. Although; the admission to that ballpark was a bit steeper. ie: https://www.technologyfactory.eu/en/eat/tubes/eat-cool-valve-ecc88-6dj8-selected/a-1086-10000258 I hated to see, those have been discontinued. Happy listening! |
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